Omaha daily bee., 1887-12-05
HE PLAYED ALL THE GAMES.
Eph Hollands Life On the River and
in Gambling Houses.
HIS ADVENTUROUS CAREER.
Winning Daguerreotypc Boat-BOss
of the Greatest Gambling Den in
America-PO1itics and Prize
Fighting Cause His Overthrow.

America-Politics and Prize
Fighting Cause His Overthrow.
The Cincinnati correspondent OF the
Chicago Tribune says: The late Eph
Holland, the famous gambler, who died
the other day. was remarkable man.
Prior to 1850 he travelled up and down
the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, along
with Alexander and Devol. Those were
the great days for steamboat gambling.
Everybody carried large amounts of
money. Cotton buyers were always on
hand and rich planters who had sold
their crops or secured large advances
on them travelled on the river, and on
all the boats gambling was a common,
everyday occurrence. Three-carded
monte men thrived land prospered,
whacked up with the bar-keepers, and
supplied them with marked cards, and
suckers were roped inn along with
their Doodle at every trip. In this school
Holland received his training and ac-
quired his nerve, for he was a nervy,
gamy man. There were scenes of dan
ger and some rough-andtumble fights
that resulted from these gambling bouts.
Once while Holland was playing poker
on one of the lower river boats at 2:3O
o'clock in the morning large. powerful
man, clad only in nightshirt, and with
large butcher knife in his hand,
rushed out of his cabin and plunged the
knife up to the hilt into the breasts of
two of the party The blood flew all
tn1,1 Il
the money. Eph reached for his re-
volver, but the captain shouted: Don't
shoot; the man is crazy" He had been
brought aboard by his wife, who was
trying to get him to an asylum. OF
course he was chained and further yio-
lence prevented.
On one occasion Eph, Alexander and
George Devol were waiting at the mouth
of Red river for II boat to take them to
New Orleans. Down at the landing
lay little boat that had been fitted up
for daguerreotype gallery. The
worthy trio at once spied the boat and
for want of something better to do re-
solved to have their pictures taken.
They all went aboard and were taken in
a group. Eph was in the middle and
the picture of him was decidedly hatter-
ing. So he wanted a dozen copies. The
wouldn't have it, so the bead was drawn
on the trio eleven times mere, for in
these early days they could only take
one picture at time. When they
were done Eph paid the entire bill and
this was so big that Devol asked the
artist ''if he wouldn't sell OUT Oh,
no." he replied, I'm making too much
money" Then the boys began to think
they ought to get even some way, so
Dcvol began to tell how he would have
his picture taken if he hadn't lost his
money at little game the night before
called "Rock Mountain Jack" ohe pro-
cecded to show how it was done. Alex
ander began to guess that he could pick
out 1.-THE baby" and turning upa corner
of the card which he let the artist see,
bet 800 and won it. Then he bet the
artist could turn it, and he won that.
The artist now got mad and wanted to
bet that he could guess it. He did, and
lost. Then they gave him chance to
get even, and he put his boat and con-
tents against all he had lost. The
proposition was accepted. and Holland
drew up Il bill of sale which he signed.
Holland was interested in the greatest
gambling arrangement ever put under
one roof in America. 1t was calculated
to catch big and little fish. In the cell
lar were bowling-alleys; on the street
floor an elegant bar-room and billiard
tables; on the second floor faro, hazard
and roulot held sway; and in the third
story keno was the monarch OF all he
surveyed. In the upper floor were
sleeping apartments for the attaches.
Some $4,000 was spent in fixing up. An
elephantine sign proclaimed the new
empire that was to rule the world, and
the establishment opened out with Il
whizZ and a boom. Jack Chinn was en-
gagged to blow the new enterprise up,
and he swelled its proportions around
about Kentucky. The rooms were
crowded. Railroad magnates, business
men, merchants, and bankers tried
their hands at the various games. There
was room enough for all. The house
coined money from the start and news
of big winnings got out upon the street.
Then Mead gave orders not to count the
money each night, and went to Wash
Here was where Haltzheimer got in his
work and stole quite pile. In the
spring of 1876 the Manhattan bank rob-
berry came off, and soon Red Leary,
Scott, and the rest of the gang put in an
appearance here. They held forth at
the Empire. "Flve hundred dollar and
thousand dollar bills flashed around,
wine flowed like water" says Blacky
Edwards, who was then interested in
the house. The town was wide open for
sport of all kinds and everything was
lively. Running short of funds the job
on the Newport safe was cooked up,"
and the fuse all ready to be
touched off to blow up the bank, but the
parties feared the building would be
blown up too. In the delay the plot was
discovered. Then the bank robbers
were arrested. Red Leary turned over
the bonds and got off and his pals got
twenty-one years. The AllenGoss fight
was cooked up in this house. Ben De
Bar bet $1,000 on Allen, which Eph
took, though he only had "A handful Of
81 bills. The sale of tickets only
mounted to 81 400, not enough to pay for
the trains that run from the little Miami
depot. Then followed the pool selling
on the presidential election of 1876,
which gave it a national reputation.
It's days were, however, soon ended, for
the Red Leary Gang, the Allen and
Goss fiasco had all made many enemies
for Holland. In addition he entered
local politics.
Holland was q man full of charity and
his Mariners say that WheneVera led